Canon fires off a beauty
The G1X PowerShot is easy to handle, loaded with effects and ideal for night shots and crisp portraits
The Canon PowerShot G1X is the latest successor in the famed Canon G series and comes with great image quality. The camera succeeds the G12 with outstanding improvements, resulting in sharper and more beautiful shots.
The G1X uses a high-sensitivity 1.5-inch image sensor, much larger than that of the G12. It’s a little bit smaller than the APS-C of a DSLR camera, measuring 18.7x14mm.
At 116.7x80.5x64.7mm, the G1X has quite a compact body for a camera with this large a sensor. That powerful sensor provides 14.3-megapixel resolution. In our test the resolution was crystal-clear, much sharper than that of the G12.
You get a 28mm wide-angle lens with a bright f/2.8 aperture, ready to capture sharp and clean photos indoors and in a low-light environment as well. There’s a 4x optical zoom, equivalent to 112mm focal length in 35mm photography.
A Canon DIGIC 5 processor of high sensitivity allows the camera to achieve very high ISO speed of 12800.
The G1X comes with an articulated 3.0-inch LCD with the “vari-angle” feature. The opening angle is about 175 degrees and the rotational angle 270 degrees, so you can easily take your own photo or compose shots at normally difficult-to-shoot angles. The optical viewfinder is handy under bright sunlight.
The stainless-steel chassis is quite robust on this easy-to-use camera with a dial for choosing among Smart Auto, Program Mode, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual and two user-customised settings, as well as Scene Mode and Creative Filters Mode.
The dial switch is on top of the exposure dial switch so you can quickly adjust the exposure compensation. There’s also a separate front dial at the back for changing the shooting parameters according to the mode you’ve selected. Inside the control dial is a function button with various shooting options.
Beginners will appreciate the Smart Auto function, which measures the available light and automatically selects a suitable scene mode. In our test the camera usually chose the right scene mode, such as back-lit portrait or scenery.
If you want more control, use the Scenery or Creative Filters, which let you select shooting modes on your own.
The scene modes are Portrait, Landscape, Kids & Pets, Sports, High-speed Burst HQ and Handheld Night Scene. The Creative Filters are High Dynamic Range, Nostalgic, Fish-eye Effect, Miniature Effect, Toy Camera Effect, Monochrome, Super Vivid and Poster Effect.
Advanced users will enjoy shooting with the full Manual, Shutter Priority or Aperture Priority mode. We got a special kick out of the creative filters Nostalgic, Toy Camera Effect and Super Vivid.
The G1X captures beautiful shots both indoors and outdoors, impressively sharp with well-saturated colours. If you want very vivid colours, there’s a Super Vivid filter.
It’s great for portraits, too, thanks again to that large sensor and bright f/2.8 lens, You get sharp portraits against blurred backgrounds, just like with an SLR camera.
I was happy to find the handheld night-scene mode, which ensures clean and sharp resolution and the beautiful colours of the night.
The G1X can also record good-quality Full HD 1920x1080-pixel video. The clip I recorded indoors looked sharp and had good stereo sound.
Count on solid performance generally, but there’s still room for improvement. First of all, it seems that the auto focus is quite slow, so the camera might not be suitable for fast-action shooting like at sports events.
Second, continuous shooting in modes where you control the parameters is quite slow, about 1.9 frames per second. You need to select the High-speed HQ mode, which allows for 4.5 fps in full automatic exposure mode – minus the control on the parameters.
Finally, it’s quite difficult to focus at less than one metre unless you switch to macro mode.
The G1X has a healthy battery life, good for 250 shots. I took nearly 100 shots using only a third of the fully charged battery.
Pick up the Canon PowerShot G1X for Bt23,900.
Key specs
_ Effective pixels: 14.3 million
_ Lens: 4x zoom 28x112mm focal length with f/2.8 to 5.8 aperture and Image Stabiliser (IS) System Lens-shift type
_ Imaging processor: DIGIC 5
_ LCD monitor: 3.0-inch type, TFT colour LCD with wide viewing angle (922,000 effective dots)
_ ISO speed: Auto, ISO 100 / 125 / 160 / 200 / 250 / 320 / 400 / 500 / 640 / 800 / 1000 / 1250 / 1600 / 2000 / 2500 / 3200 / 4000 / 5000 / 6400 / 8000 / 10000 / 12800
_ Shutter speed: 60 to 1/4000 seconds
_ Video: 1920x1080 (24fps4), 1280x720 (30fps1), 640x480 (30fps1)
_ Recording media: SD, SDHC, SDXC memory cards
_ Interface: Hi-speed USB, HDMI output, Analog audio output (stereo), Analog video output
(NTSC / PAL)
_ Battery: NB-10L
_ Dimensions: 116.7x80.5x64.7mm
_ Weight: 534 grams including the battery and memory card
